Happy December! We are working hard on fixing bumps as we read,rather than totally skipping them or giving up and asking for help.We are checking:

Does the picture look right? Do the letters sound right? Does the word make sense?

In the new trimester we will work on making our writing a little more readable to readers, by improving our printing. We are reviewing letter formation by working on groups of letters that are made in a similar way.We’ll work on using more standard spelling, not only by being able to spell word wall words, but also by finding the standard spelling in words around the room. We spent time writing the room. Going around and seeing how many words we could find around the room and writing them down. We talked about how we might use these words in our writing. Word work skills were reassessed, so kids will be working in the most appropriate word work groups. In addition we are learning more phonic letter patterns with the phonic dance.

Our read alouds this week were: Tabby McTat, Way Out In the Desert, The Perfect Pet, Bootsie Barker Bites, Quick as a Cricket, and The Three Little Javelinas –(A Mexican Three Little Pigs Story).

We are doing opinion writing – This week we wrote whether we preferred indoor or outdoor recess, what color id best and why and kind of pet is best and why.

The Teachers on Recess duty asked that as the weather gets colder, please remember to send your child with appropriate clothing for recess. (Actually first grader have been doing a very good job! Keep up the good work!)

Backpack Clean Out: As part of the new trimester it would be great if you have a chance to help your first grader clean out their back packs. Some of my friends have a lot of things in there that could stay home.

Today is the 60th day of school and the end of the first trimester.Your child’s report card came home today. Also a unified arts report card and a piece of art work. (If you don’t see these things let me know.) Please read them over. The NA’s mean not applicable. Basically these are areas that we may or not have worked on, but I have not formally evaluated them in this trimester. Our main focus in math has been number and operations. In writing we’ve worked on telling a story with more details.

What’s new?

The grading scale … in the past 1 was exceeding, 2 meting, 3 approaching and4 below. The numbering system has been reversed to coincide with numbering on some of the assessments we give.4 exceeding3 meeting2 approaching1 below

Also the comment section is brief. We are allowed only 500 characters.I call this the haiku version of comments. I hope it makes sense.

Please keep the report cards and art work. They are for you. Please sign and send back the manila envelope. I will use it again foryour child’s other report cards. Also, Mrs. San Soucie would love the plastic sleeve back that the artwork is in. Many thanks in advance.

Also we are planning a small learning celebration on Mexico, with a song and a dance, a few facts and Mexican food tasting for and end of the school day time during the last week before vacation. I’ll try to figure out the date and let you know in my Friday letter. Our room mothers will set up a sign up genius for Mexican food.

On the Tuesday before Thanksgiving vacation we completed 6 weeks of Intervention. Kids and teachers enjoyed it. There is a two week time period between sessions where we assessment as needed and rearrange kids in the most appropriate teams for the new round of intervention.Also thank you so much for your support with the Vacation Reading Challenge.Tomorrow we have at least 17 extra minutes of recess! Wow!

Instead of a regular Homework packet we have a Thanksgiving Vacation Challenge.

Keep up the good reading and counting:Click on the link below to download a copy of the ﻿1-O Thanksgiving Vacation Challenge1-o_tg_vacation_challenge.docxReturn to school by Tuesday, November 28, 2017Name _________________ Date _____________Check off each thing you do and return this sheet to school.

We sent big, thank you to the EKES PTO, for treating us to a tasty Thanksgiving meal yesterday. This week I Reader’s workshop 1-O friends added more interesting words to our vocabulary bulletin board. We worked more on going back and fixing bumps. Partners helped each other to try some strategies to fix the bumps. We retired some books from our book boxes. First graders are reading and reading!

This is the time of year when many friends all over the school are getting sick.We had a few reminders about staying safe and helping to keep our friends healthy. Like remembering to cough under your arm. Wash our hands carefully and try to keep our hands out of our mouth and eyes.

In math centers we made numbers under 100 with base 10 blocks, added within 20 with 10’s frames, worked in number sense packets and worked on Front Row and i-ready.

This week we heard Turkey Trouble, Thankful, Fletcher and the Falling Leaves. We finished Mexico ABC’s, read The Run Away Tortilla and a book called Hill of Fire about a volcano in Mexico. In writer’s workshop, first graders looked at their collections and carefully. Each child put all five items in a line and judged his or her items and chose the one he or she liked best. Then came up with 3 reasons why it was best. We’re on our way with our opinion writing unit. We also started writing thank you notes to some of the adults in the school that help us.

Earlier this week we tried on serapes and Mexican hats. The pictures are on the front page of our Website. First graders are speaking up load and proud with their facts about Mexico.Only two days of school next week, but we’ll pack them full of learning and fun. Have a good weekend! Mrs. O.

We finished our post assessment for Narrative writing and we are starting a new Unit in writing this week –about Opinion Writing called Writing Reviews.In one of the early lessons in this unit kids need to bring a collection of 5 small toys in a small container ( a zip lock bag). They will look at the items and choose their favorite and give reasons why. Please have your child bring in there collection of 5 small toys for Wednesday, November 15th.

Last week 1-O friends learned about Mexico the land - we learned there are beaches, deserts, flat plains, mountains and rainforests in Mexico. As we read this book we also practiced strategies for figuring out new words. We made Mexican tin foil etching.

Last Wednesday Mrs. Schulthess joined us for open circle. She read us the bookI Am Yoga and we practiced three yoga postions for relaxations.

We read several Mexican folk tales with trickster characters – The Tale of Rabbit and Coyote and Bourregita (lamb) and Coyote. We also learned a Mexican rhyme for hot chocolate:Uno dos tres cho,Uno do tres co,Uno does tres la,Uno does tres te,Bate bate chocolate.

In math we worked with place value constructing 2 digit numbers with base 10 blocks.

On Thursday, November 16th the PTO is providing a Thanksgiving feast at lunchtime. The lunch is free for everyone.

1-O planted a winter garden. Mr. Tullar gave us some seed garlic. That is garlic we can plant. We prepared the garden the week before by cleaning up the old sunflowers, harvesting a few carrots and pulling out weeds. 1-O friends liked working in the dirt pulling out weeds. We saw worms and grubs and a grasshopper and seeds from the summer garden. New organic fertilizer was added. Thank you Mr. Mizzi for moving the heavy garden soil with organic fertilizer. on November 3rd, Mr. Tullar came a joined us. We opened up our seed garlic separating the cloves in the classroom. Some of us loved the smell. Some not so much. Some recognized the smell from favorite foods. Garlic is used to spice many foods, like Mexican salsa and guacamole, also a good pasta sauce. First graders made a hole in the soil about a finger deep and pressed each garlic glove, tip up into the soil and then covered it. We planted a community garden that means we didn't section off square foot plots for this project. The garden is for everyone. After all the garlic was planted, we watered it a bit and first graders added handfuls of straw to help keep our garlic warm over the winter. In the spring shoots will come up and curl. We cut the first shoots off, then the garlic bulbs will grow stronger. More green shoots will come up and at the end of the summer some will turn brown. Then we'll harvest garlic!

Thank you to Amy MacDonald and Kimberly Lessard for organizing our Halloween party and snack. A big thank you to everyone who came in brought things in or sent things in! The kids enjoyed making Mexican Dio de Los Muetros skull masks.

We worked on fancying up on of our favorite Small moments by editing and adding a cover. We put our newly published books on out book display shelf for display shelf for kids to read to each other. On Thursday first graders made paper flowers for the last day of Dio de Los Muertos.

Today we planted a winter garden with cloves of garlic

In math we worked with equality - deciding if a number sentence in true or not and if the sentence is not true we worked to fix it. We working with missing number problems 3 + _____ = 10 and trickyDoubles facts 6+6, 7+7, 8+8, 9+9 and then we worked with the November calendar and used i-ready.

Our read alouds were, Dia de Los Muertos, I Know a Coyote Who Swallowed a Fly, The Teeny Tiny Woman,Wish I had a Dragon, Mexico ABC’s.

In Reader’s workshop worked on dropping a bad habit of asking for help before trying strategies like looking at the picture and the sounds in the word and comparing. We also make lots of good predictions good with our read alouds.

Mrs. Schulthess came in and shared more strategies for self-calming. (If you go to more on the classroom website, then scroll dow to Growth Mindset, you will be able to find some of the calming strategies we are learning with Mrs. Schulthess.

Next week is a three day week. We’ll learn more about Mexico. We’ll make a map and flag, try a Mexican tin craft and start to learn the Mexican Hat Dance.

We will have a post assessment for our small moments and a pre assessment for opinion writing.We'll read more good books and practice some of them independently and with a partner.

We’ve been learning various movement breaks A Ram Sam Sam, Down,Down Baby and Grandma Moses. Last week Acadia Lessard from 3-4 W shared this one with us at morning meeting:

Lemonade.Crunchy ice.Beat it once.Beat it twice.Turn around.Touch the ground.Kick your worries out of town.